Recently I had the opportunity to be on the other side of orthopaedic nursing care. I became a patient as I embarked on the journey of having my knee replaced. Intuitively, I would say that being an orthopaedic nurse would have me prepared for what was to come. I also had the benefit of being prepared for surgery by an exceptional orthopaedic nurse who was exceedingly responsive to any question I had. There was no need to look elsewhere when an expert was just a text away.
But lurking in my memory was the occasional patient who had complications after joint replacement surgery. Although rare, it does happen. I had myself completely "freaked out" over the possibility of infection, deep vein thrombosis, and implant problems. You name it ... I thought about it. As irrational as it was with the knowledge that I have, this patient worried. So what does a patient do? Search the Internet! Searching the Internet opens a whole new world of information; some of it is accurate, some of it is inaccurate, and some of it is, frankly, disturbing.
As orthopaedic nurses we need to help guide our patients to correct information. We do this by providing our patients with education classes, online procedure/surgeon-specific videos, surgical booklets about the procedure, and careful discharge instructions. We create learning tools that have accurate information about the entire surgical episode. Obviously, discussing questions with the physician or nurse should be the first place to look for information. But the age old "I don't want to bother them, they are so busy" comes to mind.
There is one more thing we must do to help our patients. We also need to educate and guide our patients on how to find accurate information on the Internet about the procedure they will have. Dekkers, Melles, Groeneveld, and de Ridder (2018) found that knowledge of orthopaedic conditions increased when patients used the Internet as a source of education. Increasing the patient's understanding of his or her condition is very valuable.
In orthopaedics, professional organizations such as the National Association of Orthopaedic Nurses (NAON) and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) have developed patient education materials. NAON has created the NAON Patient Education Series for Total hip Replacement, Total Knee Replacement, Postoperative Spine, and Postoperative Shoulder materials available at http://www.orthonurse.org/page/patient-education.
Blogs are created by one person or a group of people who provide information on particular topics and can be helpful. Helping patients understand that not everything on the Internet is accurate and that forum comments that are written by disgruntled patients, family members, friends, etc., provide limited value and increase patient anxiety over upcoming surgery and recovery. Reminding patients that information regarding specifics related to their particular surgical procedure would best be acquired from their provider. Knowing their particular provider's success for a particular procedure is also valuable to helping the patients decrease anxiety.
As an orthopaedic nurse, I was able to "turn off" some of the negative information found on the Internet. We must remember that patients may be apprehensive as they seek information regarding their condition. Making sure that the patient has access to accurate information is something that we should all strive for.
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